I would like to see VB as part of the PortableApps. application list, I am thinking about running PA on a 128GB USB flash drive. Last update on the form after doing a search for VB was maybe 2016, but no updates.
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It is impossible to make VirtualBox truly portable as one of the key requirements of the program's installation are that Drivers are required to be installed on the host machine.
Also running a virtual machine in a USB flash drive is likely to be doomed because the intense level of disk read/write activity would slow the performance to a crawl.
There are USB 3 Gen. 2 drives which have better performance than Spinning HD and people ran VirtualBox on Spinning HD.
So this is not the issue.
Regarding the Drivers, I will take your word there is no bypass.
Yet, If someone could pull something like that, it would be amazing.
In the past there were many test and even there is a website offering such thing ( http://www.vbox.me/ ) , hope this is not one of the illegal ;-)
All that is pure nonsense in my opinion, as such VB is not usable really.
The host system needs not only really big bunch of drivers to be installed, lot of modifications to the host system are made when installing all those extensions. Often happens to me , that lot of programs do not work after. Lot of work often needed to bring system back to normal.
Using this portable, means to modify each system it will runs on, so why not to install it properly?
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
If VirtualBox cannot be made portable, what about another virtualizer? There are a few out there.
all have same problem, the host system needs to be modified quite a lot to make it work.
I used even VMware for some time, it was even impossible to unistall it in normal way.
There is Qemu sure, which would in theory work alone as it is without drivers, but it is usually accompained by a driver software or 'accelerator' to make it slightly useful. It might be still useful for running some small command line only linux distro without too many programs running
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I have started QEMU as part of portable linux...
Perhaps this is a solution for you. A number of peeps, including the "LinuxLive USB Creator" project, have written an AutoIt script for setting up VirtualBox on-the-go. Your Windows account will need Administrator access though. Search github for "Portable-VirtualBox.au3", or for a working solution, look at the aforementioned LLUC project.
virtual box portable exists for long time. However it is not really portable, as it needs bunch of drivers to be able to do anything.
you can get it from here: http://www.vbox.me/
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
After seeing a couple of people saying the vbox.me version isn't fully portable... I would just like to chime in here as a user of Portable Virtualbox for a couple of years: you don't -have to- install the extra drivers. You also get the choice to install them or not.
It works just fine out of the box for running all types of things. I run at least 6 IRC bridge bots (among other things) out of an Antergos install inside of Portable Virtualbox. I say we include the app if possible, and if people find they need more extensive utility they can install the full version.
As an aside, I'm supposed to be helping with development of Portable Virtualbox... but I don't know who has control of the project now. It was handed over about a year ago.
but simply the drivers that you need to operate VB at all. The installation will need admin rights just to have any connection to outside of the VB at all.
This is meant to be not fully portable.
The extra drivers are still other story.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland